MYRTLE BEACH TRAVEL: DAY 3

By JC Leahy

Day 3, Sunday

I was up at 7:00 and spent quiet time with my photographic light box, viewing loupe and slides.  I was organizing photo the slides.  By organizing, I mean that I was discarding the ones I didn't want to keep, applying a system of numeric identification and labels to the rest, and arranging them into clear plastic storage sleeves in a 3 ring binder.  While I was thus occupied, still in pajamas and sipping coffee, the repairman showed up to examine my complaint of nonfunctional locks on the 2 sets of rear sliding doors.  I offered him coffee, but he politely declined.  He advised me that the locks needed parts.  He would have to go to the store and buy them.  He would come back afterwards to make the repair.  He asked if he could come in and make the repair if we were out.  I said sure, no problem.  He left.

At 9:30, the wife arose, just as the repairman returned.  He repaired the locks while we ate breakfast.  Dali cooked eggs.   I already had a pot of coffee.  There were also apple turnovers we had brought from home.  By the time we finished eating, the locks were repaired and the repairman had left.

Dali's passion for the day was to shop at estate sales.  Her imagination had been tweaked by my purchase the day before of an antique Japanese woodblock print for $25.  The print had come indirectly from an estate sale.  Dali imagined that estate sales far from the big city would be ripe with valuable bargains.  Customarily I am less enthusiastic about shopping for things I do not need.  We discussed this and agreed to set a limit: We would attend only two estate sales and then spend a quiet afternoon hanging around the townhouse and resort.

Task number one was to find estate sales.  We got into our Chrysler minivan, drove to the nearest supermarket, and purchased the principle local newspaper.  What was our surprise that there were absolutely NO estate sales, garage sales, or moving sales advertised in the Sunday classifieds!!  Dali was crestfallen.  I suggested that we check Craigslist for estate sales.  I started to access craigslist on my Palm 755p smartphone, but I craved a bigger screen and keyboard so we drove back to the townhouse to use a laptop computer and the Links' wireless Internet.  Searching craigslist, I found only a couple of "moving sales."  One was in Conway, about 30 miles away, and the other was closer to us in North Myrtle Beach.  Of the two, Conway's Craigslist post looked most interesting so we set out for Conway first, following the GPS.

We followed Route 17 to the Robert Edge Parkway and then took Route 31 to Conway.  There was a woman sitting in a beach chair in front of her garage.  She had a pitiful collection of junk arrayed.  Politely we masked our disappointment and struck up a conversation.  It turned out that although she advertised a moving sale, she had no intention of actually moving.  She collected junk and sold it at her "moving sale" every couple of weeks. What a deception!!

Before we could get out of Conway, Dali spied the local Wal Mart.  We had to stop, naturally, but not before visiting Burke's Outlet, next door.  After Wal Mart, it was back again into Burke's Outlet for another look.  Only then did we set out for the second "moving sale."

Thirty-five miles later, we arrived at the site of the second moving sale.  Ture, they had advertised a moving sale, and, yes, they were really moving;  however, they had sold everything at their "garage sale" the day before.  There was nothing left to sell.  We were a day late.  Thus ended the estate sale shopping. Dali was crestfallen.

It was 4:00 p.m. before we arrived back to the townhouse at the Links resort.  She made us delicious roast beef sandwiches and we had more of those yummy apple turnovers.

After dinner, we watched a Netflix movie I had brought from home, SALT.  We went and tried out the exercise room from 7 to 9:00.  After exercise, I checked e-mail online.  We went to bed at 10.